Nancy Macdonal

On the morning of November 12, 2020, Nancy Macdonal, a 42-year-old female, and her husband, Emmanuel Macdonal Sr., 39, were preparing to leave their Memphis, Tennessee, home. Around 8:30 a.m., as they were in the driveway of their residence on Patterson Street, both were shot multiple times and killed. Their 20-year-old son, who was in the back seat of their car, was also shot and seriously wounded but survived the attack.

The family had been on their way to court so their son could testify against a man who had shot him in the head five months earlier, in June 2020. That earlier shooting had left him disabled. Investigators soon determined that the murders of his parents were part of a plot to silence him as a witness in the case against Kevin Gomez.

The investigation revealed that the family had been pressured in the days leading up to the fatal shooting. About ten days before the murders, two men came to the Macdonals' home and offered them $10,000 if their son did not testify. One of the men later returned to the home alone and left $1,000 by the front door.

In the immediate aftermath of the killings, police issued a juvenile warrant for 16-year-old Luis Daniel Cordero on murder charges. The investigation continued, and in April 2022, a Shelby County grand jury indicted a different man, 60-year-old Jaja Mani, also known as Curtis Gouldin. Mani was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Nancy and Emmanuel Macdonal and one count of attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of their son.

A second man, 44-year-old Troy Clay, was indicted on a charge of coercion of a witness. Authorities believe Mani and Clay were the two men who had attempted to bribe the family. As of April 2022, a third suspect in the case was still being sought by law enforcement. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (901) 528-CASH.